Proud of Our Heros

Confessional: This is a stream of conciousness inspired by this video about the hero's who are sacrificing for our great country.



looking at the sweaty finger prints on my mouse pad

I really can't fathom the sacrifice of our soldier. I can't go away for a night and not miss my daughter. These people go away for more than a year. And maybe never come home. Why can I not fathom this? Why wasn't I taught this? I suppose it's unteachable. I'm a supporter. But there are people who watch this and don't feel the way I do - unspeakable, unthinkable pride?

You can't know this unless you take the leap and sacrifice. How can I sacrifice? And will I? Money? Time? What gave these people the courage to do it? Who taught them it was worth it?

They are heroes, not victims. They don't want pity. They want support. We should feel proud. We should feel sad for them. But not because they shouldn't be there, but because they have to be there and they do it voluntarily. I cry when I watch this - they are tears of pride.

None Die in Devastating Iraqi Car Bomb

Haven't seen this headline? Probably because you cannot accompany it with charred remains of children. (Jeff Emanuel)

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This weekend, for the first time in four attempts this year, Iraqi National Police in Samarra were able to avoid being hit with a devastating suicide car bomb (or ‘SVBIED,’ for Suicide Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device). Terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq (or ‘ISI’ – also known as ‘AQI,’ or ‘al Qaeda in Iraq’), attempting to drive a VBIED up to an NP outpost in the southwestern part of the city and detonate it, encountered a surprising amount of resistance from the National Police there. The NPs succeeded in destroying the rolling bomb before it was able to reach their position.
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Jeff Emanuel is an independent journalist working in Iraq. You will find success stories from independent journalist who seek to report the facts as they see them first hand and are not driven by ratings.

Radio Silence

I haven't heard much on the war since General Petraeus repoterd progress to congress. Is the war over? Did we win? Or is it only good news, and you can't sell that.

From Bill Roggio's new site The Long War Journal
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Coalition special operations forces continue to attack the Iranian-backed Special Groups operating inside Iraq with the same ferocity as it attacks al Qaeda. Twenty-five Special Groups fighters were killed during an engagement northwest of Baqubah this morning during a raid on a Special Groups leader.

Coalition forces called in an airstrike on a building after taking “heavy fire from a group of armed men fighting from defensive positions.” Special Groups fighters attacked Coalition forces with AK-47s and RPGs, and spotted what appeared to be a fighter “carrying what appeared to be an anti-aircraft weapon.” At least 25 terrorists are believed to have been killed in the airstrike. The engagement took place in a village near Khalis, a US military officer told The Long War Journal.

Gore MIA

Here's a summary of the effort to get Al Gore to debate climate change. Gore is unresponsive.

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In ads appearing in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Times, [Czech President Vaclav] Klaus has called on Gore to face him in a one-on-one debate on the proposition: "Global Warming Is Not a Crisis." ...

The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based free-market think tank, launched the debate campaign in April, using ads, press releases, and other tactics to prod Gore into confronting those who reject his alarmist views on global warming.

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Gore's refusal to take on the likes of Klaus, Avery and Lord Monckton is no isolated incident of the former vice president's lacking the courage of his convictions. In June, Professor Scott Armstrong of the University of Pennsylvania urged Gore to put his global warming money where his mouth is. Armstrong, one of the world's leading experts on forecasting, has studied the forecasts made by Gore and such organizations as the UN's Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) and found their methodology wanting.

Who made Bollinger the Ambassadors of Insult?

Dean of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, tried to make it seem like his invitation to the President of Iran was useful by putting him on the spot and insulting him. I'm sorry, but this was ineffective, immature and futile. Am I to believe that the Dean planned all along to invite "Ahm-a-nuttah-job" just to insult him? 1) No, I don't believe that. 2) If it was, why does Bollinger get to appoint himself the voice of America vitriol towards Iran? Shouldn't this be the role of the State Department or the President? I'd prefer to hear President Bush calling Ahm-a-nuttah-job "a petty and cruel dictator" and suggesting he is "astonishingly uneducated".

Here's a round-up of reaction from cheer to jeer at American Digest:
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Charles Johnson at LGF holds his line: lgf: Ahmadinejad's Columbia Speech, Thread 2

Lots of readers seem to think Columbia president Lee Bollinger deserves credit for his opening speech. I don't. I think it was an attempt to redeem his reputation and keep the money flowing in from alumni, and does not even begin to make up for the atrocity of giving this creature a podium at one of America's most prestigious schools.

Koz Kids (which Johnson links to in the same item) agree with him, but for slightly different reasons: Daily Kos: Bollinger's Diatribe

As an American, I was stunned and embarrassed by Bollinger's harangue of Ahmedinejad. It was a craven and cowardly capitulation to political pressures, and unworthy of the academic institution that Bollinger represents.
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UPDATE:
From Gateway Pundit's round-up, this is my fear about this invitation:
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(After the Dean chastises Ahmadinejad for wanting more research into the holocost)

"But, from the applause Mahmoud's getting from the university audience, Bollinger is the one who looks ridiculous."

Hollywoods deals out punishment

Not sure who made Hollywood the parents of America, but they seem to feel that its their duty to punish America for being an economic and human-rights leader. By undermining success in the middle-east, they feel that America will be sufficiently punished for projecting her power for sucurity. Future wars and attacks on the west will surely still be further punishment for these wars. Certainly, Hollywood's weakness in the face of fascism will not be a source of the enemy-of-freedom's inspiration.

LA Times presents opposing views on the anti-war movies about to debut this fall. This includes a fictional (slanderous) movie about our soldiers in Haditha, Iraq by Brian DePalma, "inspired by true events". Yeah. The only truth being that there are soldiers in Iraq. The rest is propaganda to push for political change at the expense of America security.

From the Anti-Hollywood perspective, Andrew Breitbart:
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To the Hollywood defeat set the Iraq War is painted as Abu Ghraib and a soldier raping an Iraqi 14-year-old girl and killing her family. Anomalous hideous behavior for which the perpetrators are rightfully prosecuted is used to slander the majority in the pursuit of political propaganda intended to demoralize a nation in the pursuit of ending the war. Brian De Palma admitted as much. Shameful. Predictable.

Democratic Leader

Blatant lying from the Democratic leader, Harry Reid. (via. Hugh Hewitt interview with Victor Davis Hanson)

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HH: Well, on the weekend, Harry Reid told a Nevada newspaper that a million Iraqis had been killed in Iraq since the invasion. That’s trafficking in propaganda.

VDH: Yeah, it is. He’s unhinged. I think that people have to realize that he’s unhinged. You know, when he said the war was lost, or that Petraeus was untrustworthy, this was a man, remember, that on October 12th, 2002, gave a speech and said that he didn’t care about WMD, because we were in a de facto war with Saddam since ’91 when he broke the armistice accords, and we had to go to war with him. So I think he’s just somebody who’s…he’s almost a poster boy for the Republicans.

Your Commander-in-Chief?

Should one be elected Commander-in-Chief if one does not trust one's generals? 69% of Americans trust the military. Shouldn't you're president be in this segment of the population?

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“You have been made the de facto spokesmen for what many of us believe to be a failed policy. Despite what I view as your rather extraordinary efforts in your testimony ... I think that the reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief.”
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- Hillary Rodham Clinton 9/11/07

This is political speak for, "I don't believe you."

Hsuicide?

Now we learn that Norman Hsu, the Clinton/Democratic fund raiser busted for shady fund raising and donations, has left a suicide note. Brings back memories of the Vincent Foster story.

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Vincent Walker Foster, Jr. (January 15, 1945 – July 20, 1993) was a deputy White House counsel during the first term of President Bill Clinton, and also a law partner and personal acquaintance of Hillary Clinton. His death was ruled a suicide by multiple official investigations, but became a subject of conspiracy

Hobson's Choice

From Wikipedia:
"Hobson's choice is a free choice in which only one option is offered. The choice is therefore between taking the option or not taking it. The phrase is said to originate from Thomas Hobson (1544–1630), a livery stable owner at Cambridge, England who, in order to rotate the use of his horses, offered customers the choice of either taking the horse in the stall nearest the door—or taking none at all."

Mario Loyola at NRO
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... Democratic-party leaders are faced with Hobson's choice. They must play the pessimist's part – it is the only way to maintain their majority. Anything else is political suicide for them. They are irretrievably invested in defeat. They therefore have to deny that we are making progress, no matter how obvious that progress is — and no matter how relieved they are, deep down inside, as Americans, that we are making it.